Cyrus Mistry death: Seven e-challans issued to Anahita Pandole for speeding since 2020

Cyrus Mistry’s death | Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil said: “Prima facie, it appears to be a case of overspeeding. We are investigating the matter.”

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— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) September 4, 2022

On September 4, Cyrus Mistry, 54, and his friend Jehangir Pandole were killed after the Mercedes-Benz car hit the railing of Charoti bridge over the Surya river in Palghar as they were heading towards Mumbai from Ahmedabad. Dr Anahita, who was driving, and her husband Darius suffered serious injuries in the accident.

Officials said between 2020 and 2022, seven e-challans have been issued to the Mercedes car for over-speeding. A police official from Kasa station, where the FIR has been registered against Dr Pandole in the wake of the accident, said she was driving the car when the e-challans were issued. The car is in the name of a company owned by the Pandoles.

In the first week of November, the police recorded the statement of Darius. According to the police, Darius said a light vehicle was moving ahead of their car. “On seeing that the three-lane road was merging into two, the car ahead took a right turn and safely moved on. Witnessing this, Dr Anahita also tried to take a right turn but could not do so because a heavy vehicle was moving on her right. So, she ended up ramming the car into the boundary wall of the bridge,” the officer said.

According to the police, Cyrus Mistry’s car, a Mercedes, crashed into a divider near Charoti on a bridge. There were four people in the vehicle, of which two, including Mistry, died on the spot. The others have been taken to a hospital.https://t.co/CPs4x4CnVo pic.twitter.com/SHT03gFyvZ

— Express Mumbai (@ie_mumbai) September 4, 2022

The officer from Kasa added, “She (Anahita) could have taken a left turn and rammed into the divider which could have minimised the impact but as the car was moving at a high speed, she could not make a sound judgment. She could not halt the car in time and crashed it into the wall.”

The police said that they are waiting for her to recover fully. Once she is discharged from the hospital, the Kasa police will take her signature as per CrPC and submit the chargesheet in a magistrate court in Palghar.

“We have decided not to arrest her but, as per CrPC, her signature will be required and she will have to be present in court at the time of filing the chargesheet. We have not recorded her statement yet as she is still recuperating,” said a senior police official from Palghar district.

The Kasa police said the report received from Mercedes Benz in the first week of November on the car involved in the crash provided them with incriminating evidence against the doctor.

The Mercedes-Benz company gave their technical analysis report based on the Event Data Recorder (EDR) taken from the damaged vehicle which helped the police in ascertaining that the vehicle was over-speeding. The report proved that Pandole could not apply brakes in time.

An EDR is a recorder in the car which helps the makers understand how the car was performing around 30 seconds or less before a crash takes place. The EDR tells you at what speed the car was moving, when the brakes were applied, the speed at the time of the crash, whether seat belts were used and whether the airbags got activated.

A Palghar police officer said, “The EDR report showed the vehicle was being driven at 100 kmph. Five seconds before the crash, the brakes were applied and the brakes got activated within 1.5 seconds. Within 3.5 the speed dropped from 100 kmph to 89 kmph, when the car crashed into the boundary wall,”

“The speed limit on the road is 90 kmph so we booked her for over-speeding. The EDR report also found that the two persons who died were not wearing seat belts. A total of seven airbags were there in the car. Five airbags opened during the crash and two curtain airbags did not open as they open only when the car rolls over, which did not happen in this case,” added the official.

The official said the two people who were in the rear died because they were not wearing seat belts. “If they would have worn seat belts, their heads would not have banged into the headrest and the injuries may not have been fatal,” the official said.

Dr Pandole has been booked under IPC sections 304A (death due to negligence), 279 (rash driving), 336 (endangering lives), 337 (causing hurt) and 338 (grievous hurt), and sections 112 (limits of speed), 183 (driving at excessive speed) and 184 (dangerous driving) of the Motor Vehicles Act, besides sections 14 (overtaking), 5 (duties of drivers/riders) and 6 (lane traffic) of the Motor Vehicle Driving Regulation.